Cable-knit marzipan Christmas cake

After 5 weeks of being swaddled and fed with whisky, the Carter family Christmas cake has been decorated!

When I decorate a Christmas cake, I’m always trying to find ways to maximise the marzipan coverage (food of the gods) and minimise the fondant icing coverage (teeth-aching, barely-edible plasticine). For all the almond paste lovers out there, I give you: cable-knit marzipan!

White marzipan is naturally the perfect colour for a classic cable-knit cardi’, though you could use food colouring to add your own slant. I found a very clever silicone mould online to form the knit – you just dust it with cornflour, press the marzipan into it, then apply the panel to your cake with a dab of water. I covered the cake with a plain layer of marzipan first to seal it and make it neater (though who needs an excuse to double-up where marzipan is concerned?!).

The buttons are made of dark chocolate, poured into another handy silicone mould that I bought years ago from Lakeland. They don’t sell it anymore, but there are plenty of similar options on the Cake Decorating Company website.

I love it’s Scandi simplicity, thought my 6 year old asked me when I was going to finish it and what else was I going to add… If you have kids, I can recommend making four times as many buttons as you need, as they’ll require one with every slice.